In a silver halide photographic material, a layer which absorbs light at a specific wavelength is commonly provided so as to prevent irradiation or halation or to control the sensitivity. For example, it is most common in practice to provide a yellow filter at the site closer to the support than the blue-sensitive layer but father from the support than other light-sensitive layers so as to cut the intrinsic sensitivities of the green- and red-sensitive layers.
The above-described light-absorbing layer usually uses fine grain colloidal silver. However, the colloidal silver grain may cause detrimental fogging in an emulsion layer adjacent to the light-absorbing layer or may be responsible for the increase in fogging during storage of the photographic material. In order to overcome these problems, it is proposed and partly employed in practice to use an organic dye in place of colloidal silver.
For example, a method where a specific layer is dyed using a solid fine grain of a water-insoluble dye is disclosed in JP-A-56-123639 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), JP-A-63-197943, European Patents 15601, 274723 and 299435 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,586.
In particular, a method where a solid dispersion of a dye comprising an acidic nucleus bonded to a 5-membered heterocyclic ring through a methine chain is described in JP-A-55-155351, JP-A-3-144438, JP-B-48-42175 (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent publication"), European Patent No. 524594 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,788.
Further, JP-A-3-167546 describes the use of a compound consisting of a pyrazolone nucleus and an indole nucleus (or a pyrrole nucleus) as a photographic dye.
However, these techniques are still bound to such a problem that the decoloration speed at the development processing is slow, the decoloration cannot be completely effected even if a long time is spent, or the decoloration property varies due to the fluctuation in processings. This problem is a fatal defect for the photographic material to be observed directly such as color reversal film.
On the other hand, if the decoloration property is satisfied, another problem arises such that the fixability to the specific layer is insufficient to cause diffusion of the dye to other layers during the storage of the photographic material and thereby adversely affect the photographic capability.
Further, the solid dispersion of a dye has an unnecessary absorption and therefore, the sensitivity may be reduced in some cases.
Accordingly, a dye compound satisfied in the fixability (diffusion resistance) and at the same time, the decoloration property and exhibiting excellent absorption characteristics has been demanded.
With respect to the anti-irradiation method, U.S. Pat. No. 3,409,433 describes a method where a dye is added to an emulsion layer, which is, however, accompanied by the loss of sensitivity, imposing restrictions in designing a high-sensitivity photographic material.
Further, with respect to the method for dyeing a light-insensitive layer, a method is described, for example, in JP-A-61-292636, JP-A-61-295550, JP-A-62-10650 and JP-A-62-103641, however, the dyeing site therein is different from that of the present invention.
Furthermore, JP-A-1-105947 and JP-A-1-222257 describe a structure such that a light-insensitive layer is provided on the support side of a green-sensitive layer and the light-insensitive layer contains a nondiffusible dye having a spectral absorption maximum at from 500 to 600 nm, which is, however, different from the structure of the present invention and by no means provides effects as achieved in the present invention.
On the other hand, as a magenta dye-forming coupler, a 5-pyrazolone coupler has been commonly used. However, the dye formed from this coupler has side absorption of the yellow component, which gives rise to reduction in the color reproducibility. A pyrazoloazole-type magenta coupler capable of reducing the above-described side absorption has been investigated and is broadly attracting an attention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,725,067, JP-A-60-172982, JP-A-60-33552, JP-A-61-72238 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,500,630, 4,540,654 and 5,021,325 describe this type of couplers.
For a silver halide color photographic material, it is an important feature to have good color reproducibility. In particular, the elementary colors such as red, blue and green have a strong impact on the eye of human beings and therefore, various attempts have hitherto been made to improve saturation in the reproduction of these elementary colors. However, as an adverse effect therefrom, another problem arises such that the change in coloration after development processing is intensified due to the change in the color temperature of a light source, for example, between fine weather and cloudy weather or between in the sun and in the shade in fine weather. Out of the silver halide color photographic materials, the color negative film is printed after development processing on a color printing paper and then subjected to viewing and therefore, the coloration may be corrected at the printing on the color printing paper, whereas the silver halide color reversal photographic material for camera work is subjected after development processing directly to the viewing and so, the above-described problem is serious for this type of photographic material.
JP-A-1-303437 describes that the color reproduction is improved by combining a compound having the same object with but different structure from that of formula (i) of the present invention with a means for achieving an interimage effect, however, in the photographic material of the present invention, the change in capability during storage of the photographic material is a matter of concerns and also, no clear description is found in the publication to state that the color temperature dependency can be improved.